


Compelled

by Kien Rugastelo (cein)



Series: Fairy Tale AU [1]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Magic, Names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25898182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cein/pseuds/Kien%20Rugastelo
Summary: When Kurogane gets his name stolen in an otherworld of a foreign land, he must work with a cat, a fox, and a handful of petals to get it back and free the land of a witch, or a witch from the land.
Series: Fairy Tale AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1880530
Kudos: 7





	Compelled

The day was bright and just a little warm. These were one of the few things Kurogane recognized here. The trees were strange here, and so were the songs of the birds and the shapes of some of the animals he had seen, but that was to be expected. This land was as far away from Japan as he had ever been. The mission was diplomatic, and the nature of that didn’t sit too well with Kurogane, but orders were orders.

He wished that Perry bastard had never come to his shores.

He was on the back of a horse, now — something that was familiar to him, something that felt a little more like home — racing through the woods with half a dozen men he was only barely acquainted with. His host, possibly sensing his foul mood, had suggested a fox hunt for the day’s entertainment, and Kurogane had agreed readily. It was much better than sitting in stuffy rooms, drinking butchered tea and ignoring sweets, negotiating such dirty things as trade deals and travel visas. Kurogane was not made for that sort of thing. He was a warrior, both by birth and at heart, and truthfully, careening headlong through even unknown woods did much more to raise his spirits than those false smiles of untrustworthy ambassadors ever could.

He should have known something was off when the other men suddenly diverted, halting their pursuit as they reached a rather large boulder, but Kurogane had seen the fox dart around it. He was only moments away from his prize, and so he didn’t falter, and instead raced around the bend and across the creek that had been hiding beyond.

Then, it was as if his world had gone sideways, and everything went black.

* * *

When Kurogane came to, he was laying on a porch to a lonely hut in a clearing, and there was a woman there, sitting on the edge, smoking from the longest pipe Kurogane had ever seen. Her hair was long, straight, and dark, her grin lazy, her eyes sleepy and yet somehow sharp. His instincts were already screaming at him not to trust her, but Kurogane kept himself in check as he hauled himself into a seated position, remarkably without any pain. If he’d fallen off his horse and hit his head, he should have been in agony. Something was wrong. “Where am I?”

“That’s not a very polite Hello,” the woman countered, a hint of a laugh in her voice.

“Hello,” Kurogane ground out in irritation. “Where am I?”

The woman took a drag from her pipe, looking Kurogane up and down like an interesting specimen. He probably was; he doubted this woman had ever seen a Japanese man before. “May I have your name first?”

“Kurogane,” he spat, patience wearing thin, “Now where — ”

“Kurogane,” she repeated and Kurogane’s voice stopped without his own consent. Something was definitely wrong here. “No, that’s not your name,” the woman decided, mirth seeping away as if carried away on the smoke in her exhale. And it wasn’t, but Kurogane had been cautioned from a young age not to give out his name — that names had power, and that someone having your name meant they had you in their control. But he didn’t know the extent of a name, how even an alias worn too long and too tight could become a binding all its own, and Kurogane could scarcely breathe, much less move as this woman fixed him with her now direct stare. “Give me your name.”

Kurogane’s mouth moved without his permission, vocal chords working, breath seeping out from his lungs, and he gave the witch his Name.

* * *

When Kurogane next awoke — and he was getting really sick of his mind slipping away from him — he was back in the woods, leaned back against a tree. It would have been a beautiful sight, if Kurogane was in the mood to appreciate that sort of thing. The birds were chirping quietly, the gentle sound of running water met his ears somewhere to the left, a cool breeze wound its way through the trees, and softly almost all around him, pink flowers floated to the ground from somewhere high above.

Miraculously, it was still daylight, or perhaps so much time had passed that it was the next day. Kurogane decided that it didn’t really matter either way as he picked himself off the forest floor. He needed to get back to civilization. Perhaps this land had the equivalent of a miko who could tell him what exactly that witch had done to him and how to reverse it, or possibly even just how to find her again so he could wring her damn neck himself.

He certainly didn’t feel any different, and the realization of that did not make him feel much better. If she could control him with his public name, her magic must have been powerful, he figured. Who knows what she could accomplish with his secret name, which was — what was it again?

“Shit,” Kurogane muttered in his native Japanese. He was in a world of trouble.

The wind gusted just a little, just enough that it blew petals in his eyes and so Kurogane covered them with one arm until it died down again, and when his arm was lowered, there were no more flowers, but instead a girl peeking out curiously from around a tree before him, too old to rightfully be called a child, but too young that he would think to call her an adult, hair a short strawberry blond and eyes as green as jade.

She didn’t look threatening, but nothing in these woods had _looked_ threatening to Kurogane yet, and not about to be caught slipping a third time, he drew one foot back as he fell into a familiar stance, reaching for his sword, but not drawing it just yet. “Who the hell are you?”

Before the girl had a chance to respond, something fell down from the trees and latched onto Kurogane’s arm, biting down hard. With a shout, Kurogane swung that arm back, hitting the creature against the trunk of the tree, where its grip broke and the cat tumbled to the ground.

“No, please!” the girl cried, rushing forward, heedless of whatever threat Kurogane may have posed, and scooping the animal up in her arms, “Don’t hurt him!”

“Don’t hurt him?” Kurogane barked back in exasperation. “The damn thing bit me!”

She turned those pleading eyes his way, keeping her body between Kurogane and the cat. “He was just trying to protect me. So please — ” she reached out with one hand, grasping at Kurogane’s pant leg “ — don’t hurt him.”

Kurogane’s scowl deepened but he tugged his leg back without too much force even as he scoffed. “Whatever, but you’re taking me back to town.”

“I can’t,” she replied sadly, standing carefully and still cradling the cat, which had grown still, but was clearly eyeing Kurogane.

Kurogane leveled her with his most incredulous stare. If she was lost, that would be one thing, but he had a sneaking suspicion that there was another reason. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“We can’t leave,” she explained, casting her eyes down as she scratched behind the cat’s ear. “She who Compulses has our names.”

* * *

Kurogane had initiated a quick march to the brook for some water and the other two trailed behind him as the sun began to set. Once Kurogane had had his fill to drink, having given himself space to think, he plopped down in the dirt and the girl mimicked the action. “What can I call you?”

“Flower,” she replied, indicating herself with a hand floating to her chest, then bringing it down to the cat in her lap, “And this is my Lion.”

Some lion, Kurogane thought in irritation. It was a brown, mussy thing with eyes just the same color. “You may call me Kuro — ” he started, but then thought better of it. His public name had already been used against him once today. “You can call me Black,” he decided.

“It is nice to meet you, Mr Black,” Flower said, apparently with no expectation for the nicety to be returned because she continued on: “You’re very different from anyone I’ve ever seen.”

It was very difficult to stay gruff with Flower, Kurogane was finding. There was something intrinsically disarming about her. “I’m from a country very far from here.”

“You speak our language very well,” she offered, smiling.

“I had a long time to practice.” And he had. The voyage by sea across several ports had taken months, and after they had left Cathay, Kurogane was left with no one else on board who spoke Japanese. It was either learn, or not communicate with anyone at all, and he’d been given a mission to accomplish. No matter what he’d thought about that mission, Kurogane was determined to do it well. “What do you know about She who Compulses?”

Flower’s face turned sad. “She is the ruler of this realm. There are legends that she grants wishes in exchange for things — usually terrible things.” Some emotion flickered in her eyes, but Kurogane wasn’t sure what. “She’s very powerful, possibly the most powerful being in all the realms, and if she takes your name, you can never leave.”

Kurogane hadn’t pegged the woman he had met to be a wish-granter, and thought her more of a thief for the way she’d stolen his name from him, but legends had been wrong before. “So you came to her with a wish, and she took your name?”

“In a way,” Flower conceded as the last rays of the sun disappeared. “I — ”

“Don’t tell him!” The cat was suddenly many times larger and not a cat at all, but a boy grasping one of Flower’s hands. Kurogane startled, hand flying to his sword again, but Flower was waving her hands frantically.

“No, don’t! It’s ok! Lion takes his human form at night.”

But Lion was apparently not done scolding. “You’re telling him too much!”

“But he’s lost!”

“He could be one of those — ” But Lion and Kurogane both snapped to attention at the sound of rustling in the grass, argument forgotten with new alertness. Flower looked between the two of them nervously, but Lion just put a finger to his lips a moment, and then waved in what looked to be an absent motion.

Flower nodded and closed her eyes. The rustling had stopped, even as the wind picked up and Flower dissolved into petals, floating on the breeze in the direction both Lion and Kurogane were staring. All the parts of her took a meandering path around the trees and over bushes, eventually circling around until she coalesced between Kurogane and Lion. “It’s a fox,” she whispered, not any louder than the breeze had been.

Lion’s frown deepened and he brought his palms together, fingers facing the opposite direction in each hand, and Kurogane knew that it must have had a purpose, but he didn’t get to learn it because suddenly, there was a blonde head popping over the grasses and a cheerful call of: “You found me!”

Lion didn’t seem to experience any relief at this, and so Kurogane only gripped his sword tighter as this new stranger stood to full height and started strolling over, babbling as if they were all old friends. “Oh don’t be like that! I’m not a threat.” The sharpness of his grin told Kurogane otherwise. “I might even be able to help.”

“Why would you help us?” Lion demanded.

“I also want my name back,” the ex-fox said lightly, as if the matter was of no consequence at all, collapsing into a seated position just out of Kurogane’s reach. “You can call me Fai,” he continued before motioning to the others in turn: “Mr Lion, Ms Flower, and — ” his smile turned just a shade wicked “ — Kuro-dear.” Kurogane drew his sword then, stepping forward and ready to turn Fai’s hide into a pelt for spying on them, but Fai didn’t look threatened in the slightest. “Now now, if you kill me, you’ll never reach Her hut.”

“You can find her hut?” Flower blurted, grasping onto Kurogane’s shirt as if that alone could stop him, but it was her surprise that gave him pause.

“I can’t just find it,” Fai boasted with no small amount of amusement, “I know where it is.”

“Is that supposed to be something special?” Kurogane scoffed, but Flower nodded emphatically.

“It’s under a spell. Lion and I have been trying to find it again, but,” and she trailed off, looking hopefully in Fai’s direction. “It’s a very powerful spell.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get us there,” Fai assured her, eyes gone gentle now that he was addressing Flower directly.

“If you can get there, then why haven’t you already?” Lion asked with no small amount of suspicion.

“There was something I’d been waiting for,” Fai admitted cryptically, glancing Kurogane’s way as if Kurogane was in on his little secret. “But now it’s here, and we can bargain with Her for our names back, together.”

Content at least that Fai really wasn’t going to attack them, Kurogane sheathed his sword. “And just what are we going to bargain with?”

Perhaps it was just the glint of the rising moon, but the humor in Fai’s eyes just then looked just this side of cruel to Kurogane. “Her Name.”

* * *

Fai had insisted that they build a fire before he explained further, so they had something to keep them warm for the rest they would sure need the next day. Flower had stayed with Fai while Lion and Kurogane left the stream for the thick of the forest for firewood (in the worst case, Fai would flee and be out of their hair, or Flower could turn to petals to escape any danger Fai may have still presented), and by the time they had returned, Flower and Fai were laughing together like they had known each other for years. Lion made quick work of building the fire by mumbling a short incantation and letting his magic ignite the wood.

Kurogane was a little impressed. “You can do magic?”

“Your body learns the longer you stay here,” Lion explained haltingly, as if Kurogane was dragging it out of him. “It’s what makes this realm special.”

“And sought out,” Fai continued, one finger in the air. “Many people who value power over wisdom come here intentionally.”

“To have their wishes granted,” Kurogane assumed.

“That’s true now, but it wasn’t before She was brought here,” Fai supplied, and Kurogane noticed vaguely that Fai never referred to who Flower had called She Who Compulses by any name. “Long ago, this was just another otherworld like any other. There was magic here then, too, and a few creatures, and a few not-creatures, but it wasn’t concentrated like it is now. You didn’t have nameless things doomed to wander the forest forever, never to see the human world again like we do now.”

“Forever?” Kurogane interjected.

“When you lose your human name, you lose your tether to the human world,” Fai explained, “And your right to a human death.”

It seemed rather fantastical, and the information had Kurogane leaning back a bit, folding his arms in thought. “So you can’t die here.”

“Not easily.”

Kurogane wasn’t going to be digging too far into that comment. “You said she was brought here?”

Fai nodded. “She was captured and brought here from another land, and to keep Her here, they took Her Name.” Fai rested his chin in one hand, gaze drifting to the fire absently. “It didn’t work out well for Her captors, but She’s trapped here just as much as we are.”

“But if we can give her her name, she’ll be free!” Flower deduced excitedly. “And she’ll give us our names back!”

“That’s right,” Fai assured her, smiling her way again.

“You certainly seem to know a lot about this,” Kurogane muttered with suspicion.

Fai’s reply was light: “I’ve been here a long time.”

“And?” Kurogane continued at Fai’s confused glance: “What is her name?”

Fai’s grin then was silly and relaxed. “I don’t know it.”

Kurogane felt the urge to kill rising within him as he took Fai’s collar in hand and the man didn’t even have the grace to look frightened. “Then how the hell are we going to give it to her?”

“We’ll have it,” Fai said with a certainty that had Kurogane’s fist loosening. “When we get there, we’ll have it.”

* * *

Kurogane took first watch and Lion took the second, and just before dawn, they were shaking Flower (in Lion’s case) and kicking Fai (in Kurogane’s case) awake. They made sure the fire was out, but didn’t have to pack up anything as there was nothing to pack before moving on, letting Fai lead the way, Flower carrying Lion, who had returned to his cat form.

The path he led them on was meandering, sometimes circling back on itself, which irritated Kurogane to no end, but Fai assured them that his methodology was precise and that there was not a single unnecessary step in their journey. At one point, Kurogane thought they should break for a meal, but Flower told him they weren’t hungry and wouldn’t be hungry — not in this forest, not until they were free.

Kurogane was really starting to get sick of this place.

He tried getting more information out of Fai, but the man was skilled at deflection and nothing that came out of his mouth was of any worth. At one point, Fai went as far as to turn the questioning around on Kurogane, asking him if he had noticed anything unusual about “Her” when he’d met her.

They spent the whole day wandering in what Kurogane felt to be circles before Fai declared they had found their camping place for the night, then flouncing off with the now-human Lion in search of firewood, leaving Kurogane with Flower. The silence didn’t stretch long before Flower decided to strike up conversation. “What did you wish for?”

Kurogane closed his eyes where he was resting back against the trunk of a tree. “Nothing.”

“It had to be something immense,” Flower reasoned, “If the price was your name.”

“I didn’t wish for anything,” Kurogane repeated, keeping a tight control on his aggravation. It wasn’t Flower who upset him. “I was hunting foxes and I woke up at her hut. She compelled me to give my name and left me in the woods.”

“That’s — !” Flower started, clutching one hand to her chest before she cut herself off. “That doesn’t seem like her.”

Flower looked lost and more than a little awkward in the silence that fell, so Kurogane took mercy on her. “And?” Flower looked back up his way, a little startled at his sudden question. “What did you wish for?”

Flower’s gaze drifted down and she picked at the grass idly. “I wanted Lion back,” she began, then paused as if weighing the wisdom of continuing. “He came here after my mother died to wish her back, but he.. wasn’t very polite about it,” she admitted delicately. Kurogane could picture the brash young man demanding the witch’s services like a fool, even for the impossible; of course, there would be consequences. “So she took his name and kept him, and when he didn’t come back, I went looking for him, and traded my name for his freedom.”

Kurogane scoffed. “Some freedom.”

Flower’s smile was a bit sad. “I could have worded it better,” she admitted with a little self-deprecation. “But if I can get his name back, then he’ll really be free, and he can be human all the time once we get back to the human world.”

Kurogane was spared any further conversation as Fai and Lion returned, and this time, it was Kurogane who took the first watch.

* * *

“So you’re flowers, Lion’s a cat, and I’m a fox,” Fai began with mischief dancing in his voice. “What do you think Kuro-growl will become? A bear? A hawk?” He continued rattling off animals, directing the conversation at Flower as if Kurogane wasn’t there as Kurogane’s hackles rose and Flower glanced nervously between the two of them. He cycled through a dozen different animals or maybe more before deciding, finally glancing back Kurogane’s way, “Personally, I think he’ll become a hen.”

Kurogane reached forward to snap that scrawny neck but Fai easily ducked away, prompting Kurogane to give an unfruitful chase. It wasn’t easy to die in this world, apparently, but Kurogane _would_ find a way to kill him. Somehow.

* * *

When they reached a place that looked so much like the stream where they first met Fai (Kurogane was certain they were back where they started), Fai stopped and put a finger to his lips to indicate silence. Kurogane’s patience wore thin. In his land, fox spirits were known for their malicious mischief and he was convinced that Fai had been leading them around in circles just to waste their time, and he was just biding his time until Fai dropped the act so that he could finally act on his urges and lop that stupid head right off his shoulders.

Fai reached down, though, and scooped up a palmful of water before casting it out in a wide arc. The water misted forward and down, growing thicker than such a small amount of water could account for, before seeming to dissolve and reveal the clearing with the hut, and the witch sitting there smoking on the porch.

“This way,” Fai urged, stepping forward into the tall grass to lead them up to the hut, “And let me do the talking.” Flower followed with Lion in hand, and Kurogane took up the rear. When the witch spotted them, she stood gracefully, her eyes fixed on Kurogane.

“Since you are here, I suppose you must have a wish,” she said evenly.

“We come not with a wish,” Fai began, bowing low and catching her attention, “But a bargain.”

“Oh?” she intoned, visibly intrigued as Fai straightened. “And what bargain do you propose?”

“We would bargain for the return of our Names to our Selves,” Fai replied, as if he had been practicing his wording, or perhaps had attempted this bargain many times before.

The witch tapped a finger to her chin. “And with what would you pay?” Her eyes drifted back to Kurogane and he hated this. Fai had told them they’d have her name, but if he didn’t have it, and they hadn’t done anything to find it, then how exactly did he plan to pay up? It didn’t sit right, and Kurogane found his hand reaching for his sword. “What do you offer that could be worth four names?”

Kurogane expected Fai’s trickery to come out then — for him to offer them up as a sacrifice for his own name after all — but he didn’t hesitate. Fai’s gaze was straight and certain as he set the terms: “Your Name.”

There was a sound like a bell being struck and a gale whipped up suddenly, threatening to blow them all away, but Flower’s grip on Lion was sure, and Fai caught her arm before she could blow very far, pulling her down into the relative safety of the grass while Kurogane crouched down as well. The wind howled and howled with the witch standing there like the eye of the storm, staring straight at Kurogane with no emotion on her face.

“Say it!” Fai shouted to be heard above the storm.

“How the hell should I know it?” Kurogane yelled back murderously. He knew this wasn’t going to work, and now that they had made a bargain and failed to pay, they were going to wind up in her soup or something and it was going to be all this damn fox’s fault.

“You know it!” Fai insisted desperately. “Look at her, Kurogane! A wish-granter. She who Compels.”

With a growl, Kurogane did look. Fai had told him before there had been something strange about her, something he should have noticed. That he had been waiting for something so he could come here — something that had either come with Kurogane or _was_ Kurogane. And it was then that Kurogane saw it. She wasn’t European at all, but Asian — Japanese. And Flower hadn’t called her She who Compels, but who Compulses. Someone who satisfied urges. There were names like that in his language, and Kurogane trusted his gut and went with the name that could be written with the first matching character that came to mind: “Yuuko!”

The wind stopped and for a moment, nothing happened at all. Kurogane straightened from the braced position he had taken, and Fai helped Flower back to her feet, but Yuuko was still, face unresponsive, waiting.

It was Fai, then, who stepped forward, boldly taking one of her hands in his own. “To satisfy our bargain, I offer your Name, Yuuko.”

Yuuko smiled. “Your price has been accepted.”

Kurogane’s world went black.

* * *

When he came to, he was resting back against the boulder he had originally chased the fox around to get him in this ordeal in the first place, and Fai was perched on a log across the stream from him. “You did it, Kurogane.”

“How the hell do you know my name?” he ground out, but without much bite.

Fai’s smile was wry. “When I’d heard you’d come, I investigated.”

“You mean you spied,” Kurogane corrected.

Fai only shrugged. “I had to be sure, if I was going to lead you here.”

“You were the fox.”

Fai didn’t deny it. “Who do you think compelled them to send you on a fox hunt in the first place?”

Kurogane should have felt enraged at being manipulated so, but it was over now, and he was still so tired. Besides, he was fairly certain if he stepped back over that stream, he’d be back in the otherworld. “How long has it been since I disappeared?”

If Fai was surprised that Kurogane knew that he would know, it didn’t show on his face. “An hour, maybe a little more. Your horse wandered back to the hunters after she threw you. Poor thing was startled when she crossed realms.”

Kurogane had no sympathy for the horse, and he stood, ready to pick his way back to civilization. “And what about you? Can only be a fox out here?”

“I have my name back,” Fai clarified. “If I cross over now, I won’t be able to come back.”

“Is that so bad?”

For a minute, Kurogane didn’t think Fai would answer that — that they would part ways and never see each other again — but Fai only studied him briefly before standing and carefully, deliberately, crossed the stream. He let out a breath in a whoosh, smile wry. “It’s been a long time.”

“How long?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”


End file.
